Motorola Droid vs. HTC Droid Eris: Side-by-side spec comparison of Verizon’s Android Phones

Being stuck at home for the past couple of days has afforded me extra time to get things done. One thing I’ve wanted during the past week is a side-by-side comparison of the technical specs of Verizon’s new Android Phones.

I’m interested in getting either the Motorola Droid or the HTC Droid Eris as I’m eligible for the New-every-two upgrade plan and could save $100 if I upgrade when the phones come out on November 6th.

Being a strong supporter of Free Software, I’d like to be able to replace the stock Android build with an entirely Free Software build such as Replicant. Of course, it’s entirely possible that Verizon has locked down the handsets to such an extent that it is impossible for us to replace the OS running on the device. That’s why I’m going to wait a couple of weeks and see how far people have gotten in rooting the device before I make any decision.

H1N1: How we test for it and why there’s no FDA-cleared test

Oink, oink. Yes, one of those ILIs has caught up with me and I’m currently stuck in bed sipping water and battling a fever that makes me wonder if I could fry eggs on my forehead.

The CDC has some nifty graphs and tables on their website. You can learn about everything from the number of illnesses reported by US region to Antiviral resistance. In case you thought that H1N1 was some kind of trumped-up wimp on the block, note that

all 2009 H1N1 viruses tested since April 2009 have been resistant to the adamantanes (amantadine and rimantadine).

Oh great, just what we need: more superbugs!

Maple Syrup: Testing out the Pig

A few weekends ago I brought a few friends over to my place and we tested out the Pig.

The Pig is my homemade maple syrup evaporator. It’s got a body made out of a 55 gallon metal drum, legs from Cyrus’s futon frame, a front damper/door made out of a discarded STOP sign, and a chimney made out of old heating duct.

Sustainability at DHMC: Reuse those foam plates!

I was in line at the cafeteria last week when someone from one of the other offices in my building said “Oh, when did they start using china in this cafeteria?” I had to politely tell the woman that DHMC was not deploying reusable dishes at all of its cafeterias and that I bring my own plate and just wash it afterwards. “Oh, what a good idea!” she said, “I should bring my own plate sometimes. Washing it off afterwards isn’t too hard.”

Handwashing isn’t that difficult, but washing off all of the dishes in a central location, using an auto dishwasher, would probably save money and water, and would certainly save a time for all of the people working in the building. There would be an initial outlay and ongoing expense to stock the china and deal with breakages and so forth, but it would be a great step for sustainability.

Outdoor Movies: Kicking it off with “Duel of the Tough”

When was the last time you went to a drive-in?

For me it must have been at least 3 years ago. There’s a drive-in over in Fairlee, VT, and during the summer season they show double features for $8 per person. It’s a lot of fun to pile in a car and head over there, hoping for clear skies.

The Fairlee Drive-in also has a motel, and the rooms are situated such that you can open the curtains on one of the walls and watch the movie. It’s kind of a fun gimmick.

Last night I kicked off my career as a projectionist with the spectacular film Duel of the Tough, originally titled Shen tui mi zong shou. We’d had a BBQ over at my place and Cyrus stayed around to poke at the fire when I had the epiphany that I had finally acquired all of the pieces necessary to project movies outside.

Oktoberfestivities 2009

Last night was Oktoberfest 2009. We had a lot of tasty food including hendl (chicken, in Bavarian), almonds mit hoenig (I can’t remember the german term for almonds), sausage, mashed potatoes, beer, and just a drop of Jaeger.

Oktoberfest, as I’m sure you all know, is that other fall holiday when guys and girls get to dress up in sexy costumes. Unlike Halloween, Oktoberfest encourages the guys to wear leather shorts, and encourages everyone to dance, drink, and sprechen deutsch. All in all it’s quite a good holiday.

This morning I wrote hijacked a song. Would you like to hear it? Oh, I bet meine lederhosen schwartz you would:

Jaeger-weiss, Jaeger-weiss,
Every morning you talk to me,
Dark and sweet, tastes of deer meat,
Jaegermeister I love thee.

To quote the Black Eyed Peas, “Tonight’s going to be a good, good night.”

Plastic Recycling Hurdles: Label everything, please!

Okay, so I’m pretty sure I told you all that I can now recycle all plastic items with SPI resin identification codes #1-7 on them, due to a contract between Dartmouth and Coca Cola of Northern New England. Marvelous!

But I’m not quite done.

There are still a number of products I use that have plastic components that aren’t labeled. Lots of plastic containers label the bottom part but not the lid. Sure, the lid is usually smaller than the rest of the container, but I’m still trashing a bunch of waste that could be recycled.

After pondering this problem for a few days, I did what any young, eccentric recycl-aholic would do and started saving plastics that weren’t labeled. After about a month I picked up my laptop and started emailing people. It took the better part of an evening to write up a letter, find contact emails for companies, and then personalize the basic letter for each recipient.

You might think that some of the older, established companies wouldn’t have a web presence, but I didn’t find a single company without a substantial website. Heck, you can even friend some of the companies (e.g. PriceChopper) on FaceBook. WTF?

Corporate craziness aside, I got a number of helpful responses within a week. It seems that most of the manufacturers and companies are interested in increasing the recyclability of their products but are limiting themselves due to the language of the recommendations of the SPI (the plastics industry trade association) and concerns over labeling implying acceptance of the product by all recyclers.

Manufacturers shouldn’t be limiting themselves here — they should be encouraged to label as much of their products as possible so that they can be recycled as much as possible. Sure, not all plastics are going to be recyclable in all cites, all the time, but it shouldn’t hurt us to at least label everything. Telling the truth shouldn’t be a bad thing.

I’ve drafted a letter to the SPI, but I haven’t found an email address for them yet. I’ll keep on searching and send them the letter when I find one, but for now I’m going to post it here on my blog. Any help in finding contact information for them would be appreciated!

–Q

Fake Linus Torvalds, a Rap, and a Response

The Linux Foundation is doing some kind of special promo for LinuxCon where they’ve had some “fake” Linus Torvalds tweeting and denting (the verb describing “tweeting” on Identica). There’s a bit of a contest going on to see if people can guess the real identity of these pretenders.

The whole thing sounds rather fun and ridiculous, and the group even made a rap video to go along with the project that you can see on the Fake Linus Torvalds page above. Unfortunately the rapper in the video flubbed the recitation of the first 6 digits of Pi.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

It’s possible that the flub might have been intentional, but I couldn’t just sit idly by while the future geeky rappers out there are potentially being mislead. I mean, think of the children!

Live Blogging: Sykes Free Concert Series

Okay, so I’m going to try out this live blogging thing. No promises.

We’re currently at the Sykes Free Concert at Collis Commonground. This concert is (or perhaps all such concerts are?) funded by Jack Wehner ‘74. The concerts are dedicated to Music professor Jim Sykes and his wife Clay.

Tonight we’re hearing music by Boismortier (Concerto), Abreu (Tico tico no fuba), Telemann (Duo), Rossini (Quartet) and Brahms (Sonata for violin and piano). Nothing by our perennial favorite, P.D.Q. Bach. Tsk, tsk.

We’re currently noshing on local cider, apples, bread, cheeses and ice cream.

Manufacturers: Please label all plastic with resin identification codes

As I’ve mentioned before, Dartmouth College recycles plastics marked #1-7. Coca-Cola of Northern New England (CCNE) is the recycler of Dartmouth’s plastic and aluminum, and they can’t recycle plastics unless they are marked with a number. Although most plastics can be recycled, there’s a significant class of not numbered plastic bags, lids, tubs, and other items that CCNE cannot identify, and so must go into the trash.

The plastic resin identification codes and icons were set up by the Society of the Plastics Industry in the 1980s. As far as I can tell these codes and icons, like the universal recycling symbol itself, are in the public domain. There’s no organization that polices use of these logos. So any given plastic manufacturing company could easily, and without royalty or compliance fees, change their manufacturing process to stamp, mold, paint, or otherwise include the appropriate resin id code on their plastic products. Sure, a bottle marked #1 could turn out to be half Polyethylene (#1) and half Polystyrene (#6), but in such a case a company could probably be sued for false labeling.

Because there are still un-numbered plastic products out there, I have devised a plan: Whenever I come across a plastic container or container component that isn’t numbered, I’ve been putting them aside in a separate bin. My thinking is that once I have a pile of these items I can sit down and contact the product vendors or container manufacturers and ask them to properly label their containers with resin id codes.

If enough people ask for properly-labeled packaging, I think that businesses will definitely start to pay attention. Even if only some of the container manufacturers start to label all their products, we can use those manufacturers as leverage and get companies to switch or threaten to switch to a new container supplier if all of the plastic parts on a given container are not properly marked.

–Q